World Trade Organization

Background and evolution

After the Second World War, plans for an International Trade Organization failed, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) came into force in 1948 as a provisional arrangement among a small group of countries, including India. Over eight rounds of negotiations GATT cut tariffs on manufactured goods. The Uruguay Round (1986–1994) was the most ambitious: it extended rules to agriculture, services, intellectual property and investment measures, and created a permanent organisation.

The WTO was established on 1 January 1995 by the Marrakesh Agreement, signed in April 1994. Unlike GATT, it has a single undertaking (members accept almost all agreements as a package) and a binding dispute settlement system. The Doha Development Round, launched in 2001 to address developing-country concerns, has largely stalled, and progress since then has come through smaller packages such as the Trade Facilitation Agreement (2013) and the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (2022).

Key features and provisions

• Structure: the Ministerial Conference decides, the General Council runs day-to-day work and also sits as the Dispute Settlement Body and the Trade Policy Review Body; decisions are normally taken by consensus.
• Core principles: most-favoured-nation treatment (no discrimination among trading partners), national treatment (no discrimination between imports and domestic goods after entry), binding tariff commitments and transparency, with special and differential treatment for developing countries.
• Key agreements: GATT 1994 (goods), the Agreement on Agriculture (with amber, blue and green boxes for subsidies), GATS (services), TRIPS (intellectual property), TRIMS (investment measures), and the SPS and TBT agreements on standards.
• Dispute settlement: panels hear disputes and the Appellate Body hears appeals. Since December 2019 the Appellate Body has been unable to function because appointments have been blocked, so many panel rulings are appealed "into the void". Some members use an interim arrangement (MPIA); India is not part of it.